1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to detecting, preventing, and/or thwarting fraud and/or fraudulent use in a network communications system, where the network communications system and its methods comprise the enabling a network infrastructure to support multiple network providers and/or customers of multiple network providers.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Various types of wired and wireless infrastructures are being developed to provide High-speed Internet Access (HSIA) to users of computing devices, such as portable computing devices (PCDs). Currently, numerous providers are attempting to install wired and wireless network infrastructures in various locations, such as airports, hotels, office buildings, etc. for use by various users. Many of these providers also provide subscription services to customers. These subscription services provide the end user with a single bill at the end of the month for all of his or her uses (or, in some cases provide for a pre-paid subscription service). The subscription may be provided by a HSIA network infrastructure provider, or the subscription may be provided by an “aggregator” that does not own or operate any networks, but provides infrastructure for enabling their customers to gain access at sites from one or more HSIA network providers. The party that has the end-user billing relationship is referred to herein as a “subscriber-owner” or “roaming partner.”
Subscriber-owners often desire to provide services to their customers at a large number of locations, including locations that are not necessarily owned or operated by the subscriber-owner. Providing such subscription services at a locations not owned or operated by the subscriber-owner is often referred to as “roaming,” and the subscriber is said to “roam” onto a third party network.
Roaming technology has been developed in other fields outside of HSIA such as telephone, cellular telephone, and dial-up Internet services. Roaming is a familiar term in cellular telephone networks in situations where a customer of one carrier may arrive in a region where the carrier does not have a physical presence but another provider has equipment. The customer connects to the third-party system and “roams” onto this network. The charges are automatically accumulated by the subscriber-owner and posted on the customer's monthly invoice. In the early days of cellular telephones, roaming was quite awkward. For example, to roam in some areas, a customer would have to dial a local number to inform the local carrier that the customer was in the carrier's region. This awkwardness was due to the fact that no standard mechanism or technology for exchange of credentials or billing information had been adopted. Today roaming in cellular telephone networks is nearly universal between all carriers. More importantly, it is convenient and unobtrusive for the end-users.
In an a situation analogous to the early days of roaming in cellular telephone networks, HSIA providers and subscriber-owners face a challenge of providing roaming services to their customers. At the present point in time, no standard has been adopted for exchange of credentials and billing information. Whereas there is a large amount of technology available for roaming in cellular telephone networks and dial-up ISPs, the mechanism for HSIA connections is quite different than either of these existing systems. HSIA connections are normally controlled via an access control list mechanism with a web-browser. In some cases, client software can also be used to aid in the connection process.
Roaming technology with regards to HSIA has similar and/or unique issues regarding fraud and/or fraudulent use such as in the telephone, cellular telephone, and dial-up Internet services industries.
A variety of networks are used to implement roaming technology for HSIA today. Computer networks include local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), intranets, the Internet and other types of communications networks. Communication networks include those for conventional telephone service, cellular networks of different varieties, paging services and others. Networks are used for many purposes, including to communicate, to access data, and to execute transactions. For many reasons, including security, it is often necessary to confirm or authenticate the identity of a user before permitting access to data or a transaction to occur on the network. Further, authentication is of paramount importance in HSIA roaming technologies because it may permit the HSIA network provider and the roaming partner to enable one or more subscriber's use of one or more networks.
One known approach to computer network authentication is the use of user-specific passwords. Passwords provide some level of protection, but they are not fail-safe. One reason, passwords are vulnerable is that users may share them. Even if passwords are kept private, someone who wants to obtain a password badly enough may utilize random generators, keyboard monitors, or other techniques since some fraudulent activities focus on fraudulently obtaining subscriptions. Moreover, when dealing with unknown users, such as people who want to conduct an electronic transaction or HSIA roaming authentication over the Internet (or other equivalent communications networks), ad hoc passwords may not be practical.